Railway-car-truck center-bearing.



W. EJWILLIAMS.

RAILWAY CAR TRUCK CENTER BEARING.

APPLICATION FILED Aue.2I.1914.

1,191,862. Patented July 18, 1916.

23 w l y 5 25 W2 1 WW M Q 4} LZ JQZZ which is fastened .to

ings which are Eli WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS.

nArLwAY-oAn-rnUoK CENTER-BEARING.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM EnAsTUs WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railway- Car Truck Center Bearings, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of bearknown as anti-friction bearings, and I prefer to use rollers for the antifriction devices although I may use balls.

The object of my invention is to produce ananti-friction center bearing which, while it may be cheaply constructed, will meet the requirement of the service and last the normal life of the car. 7

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawing in which- I 6 Figure 1 is a central vertical sectional elevation of the bearing. Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the upper plate with portionsbroken away to show portions ofan equalizer plate and rollers and of a vplate below and supporting the equalizer plate.

I prefer to use three annular. concentric races separated by rigid walls, and in these three sets of frusto-conical rollers each of a length less than its diameter and the rollers of each set being of greater diameter than the rollers of the succeeding set nearer the center of the races. v

In the drawing, 1 indicates the top plate the car body bolster,

bottom plate which is fastened to the truck bolster. Suitable rivet holes 3 and 1 are provided for fastening these plates to their respective bolsters.

5 indicates the intermediate'or equalizer plate.

6, 7 and 8 indicate'the three sets of rollers and each set of rollers are made of requisite diameters to fill their respective race ways with a suitablenumber of rollers regardless of Whether or no the rollers of one race way are greater or less in number than those of a companion race way.

The several races are at substantially the same distance from the upper face of-the plate 1, as shown, so that the axes of the and 2 indicates the rollers 1n any set are not in the plane of the axes of the rollers'of any other set, orm

Specification of Letters Patent.

. arated points or Patented July 18,1916.

Application filed August 27, 1914. Serial No. 858,793.

other words, the larger the roller the greater the distance of its axis, from the upper face of the plate 1. This construction gives many advantages over having all the axes 1n the same-plane, and especially avoids useless metal and allows smaller clearance space than is usually required.

V The truck bolster plate 2 is provided with a spherical segmental projection 11 which articulates at the surface 12 on the plate 5 which is curved to'fit the curve of the projection 11. The plate 5 is provided with a projection 13 which projects down into the aperture 14 of plate 2 and through the plate 5 there is the hole 15 through which extends the king bolt or center pin of the car truck.

There is such clearance between the projection 13 of plate 5 and the side walls of the aperture 14 of plate 2 as readily permits any rocking motion that may occur between the car body bolster and the truck bolster.

An annular projection 16 of plate 5 eX- I tends up through an aperture 17 in plate 1 and this projection 16 isprovided with seplugs 18 which may be bent over as indicated by the-dotted line 19 to lock the plates 1 and 5 together after the same have been properly assembled.

I The contact faces at 12 between the plates 2 and 5 are so arranged that their outer line 20 is less distant from the center than the outer portions of the bearing surfaces of the rollers ,6, so that a strong rocking thrust so momentary that slip upon each other cannot be transmitted through a single roller 6 to the plate 2, directly but must be transmitted through the bodies 5, 11 at a materially less distance from the center than the distance of the outer portionsof the rollers 6 therefrom, and thus the thrust will always be borne by a plurality of rollers; and while there may befa much severerload on one side of the bearing than on the other, there will always be some load on all the rollers all the time. 1 Between the race ways of my several sets of rollers 6, 7, and 8,]therearethewall flanges 22, 23, 2 1 and 25 on the plate 5, and 26, 27 28 and 29 on the plate 1, and these flanges are so arranged, that there is practically a direct resistance'of all the flanges to the surfaces at 12 do not horizontal or shearing force which must be central.

transmitted through many rollers and distributed by the rollers to a large part of each flange above or below the horizontal planes of the lines 30, 31, 32.

The annular projection 13 of plate 5 is sufliciently strong and engages in thecavity 14 of plate 2 to a sufficient depth to always resist the shearing or thrust strain as above described whenever these strains are so great as not to be taken up bythe spherical surface of the projection 11 of plate 2. Whenever shocks occur which displace the projection 11 in relation to plate 5 whereby the projection 18 ofplate 5 comes directly in contact with side walls of the aperture 14 of plate 2 the partsimmediately return to normal position, and the antifriction devices are never materially disturbed.

The arrangement of the several race ways of the roller as described whereby the mini mum thickness of plate 1 is maintained as indicated by the dotted line 9, permits for the surfaces at 12 a spherical curvature such that certain strains from the'car and load will cause slipping of these surfaces one upon the other. With the larger radius of curvature or flatter contact surfaces usually employed, there is no such slipping and noshifting of the center of pressure.

f course any curve desired for the surface 12 may be secured in the other designs by making the clearance depth over all of the bearing greater, but as before stated then the bearing cannotbe used in the cars within the spaces ordinarily provided for it.

Further when the bearing is made deeper it involves more weight of metal and adds expense.

The rollers designed as I have shown require no trunnions and are the cheapest and simplest that can be made of this class, and can be made more easily all of uniform sizes than is the case with rollers which require trunnions.

To facilitate the escape of dust from the races and the passage of oil from the kingbolt opening thereto, notches 33, 84, 35 are provided in the race walls or flanges and are placed out of radial alinement, to avoid weakening along any direct line of fracture.

The plates of a bearing of this kind are usually made out of cast steel but are sometimes made of malleable iron or drop forgings. I prefer to make mine of cast steel or of any suitable material that would have suflicient strength and be sufficiently malleable to work as described. The design of this bearing is such that it may be made of drop forgings, which is-a great desideratum. 'WhatIclaimis:

1. The combination with abody bolster plate havingbelow concentric race forming fianges'and a truck bolster plate having a upwardlyv projecting spherically curved projection, of an intermediate equalsaid intermediate izer plate provided below with a concave frictional surface fitting said projection and above with integral flanges forming races registering, respectively with the races first mentioned, and annular sets of conical rollers filling the races vertically, the rollers of each set being of greater diameter than those of a set nearer the axis of the races, whereby the bodies of the bolster plate and the equalizer plate are of approximately uniform thickness andthe most violent strains are borne by large rollers.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with centrally apertured body and truck plates, of an intermediate equalizer member articulating with one of said plates, by means of. a. spherically curved projection engaging in a corresponding recess, and provided above and below with central projections extending into the apertures of said plates, respectively, and antifrictionv devices between said member and. the other of said plates. I 3. The combination with top and bottom plates graduallyincreasing in distance apart in passing outward from the .axis of rotation, of an equalizing plate between said top and bottom plates, and concentric annular sets of rolling anti-friction, members, between the equalizing plate and one of the other plates, having all their extreme upper and lower bearing points approximately equidistant from the outer faces of the two plates between which they lie.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination withwtop and bottom plates one of which is provided with a central spherical boss having a central opening, of an intermediate equalizerplate provided with a projection entering said opening and with a recess adapting it to fit over said boss and rock upon the same, and rotating antifriction members interposed between the equalizer plate and the plate having no boss, said equalizer plate and the plate having no boss being locked against separation. 5. In devices of the class described, the combination with top and bottom plates and an intermediate equalizer plate, of concentrio sets of frusto-conical rollers between plate and one of the other plates, the rollers of each set being of greater diameterthan the rollers of any. set nearer the axis of the sets and all the rollers having their lines of contact With the outer plate approximately parallel to and equidistant from the outer face of said outer plate.

6. In a device of the class described, the combination with an outer plate having a central spherically curved boss with acentral aperture, of an equalizingplate provided with a recess to receive said boss and with a tubularprojection extending into said opening and on the opposite face with annular race-forming flanges, a second outer plate provideq with similar flanges adapted Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook to register wlth those first mentioned and. and State of Illinois August 2&th, 1914:.

form co-acting races and rotating antifriction members located. in said races and. WILL 1AM ERASTUS WILLIAMS 5 adapted to transm't lateral thrusts from the Witnesses:

flange of one member to those of the com- H. A. FORSBERG,

panion member. A. D. SHANK IN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

